Rain this week dims outlook for Bombardier CSeries' first flight

September 09, 2013|Reuters

TORONTO, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Rain and cloudy weather isforecast for Bombardier Inc's flight test site formuch of this week, casting doubts over the date for the firstflight of the Canadian company's all-new CSeries jetliner.

The 100- to 149-seat CSeries is the first completely newnarrow-body aircraft in its class in decades, and isBombardier's attempt to break into a market dominated by Airbus and Boeing Co.

Bombardier, the world's fourth-largest plane maker, has saidweather will be the main factor in deciding when the new planewill fly, an event that will help determine whether the CSerieswill meet its manufacturers' promises on performance andefficiency.

The company has given no date for the first flight, althougha source familiar with the situation has tipped Sept. 17 as alikely deadline.

In a sign that the first flight might be only days away,Bombardier on Friday began high-speed taxi trials at its testsite at Mirabel, Quebec, and said a few more runs were planned.That includes taxi tests expected to go up to 120 knots,conducted in optimal weather, good wind conditions and a dryrunway.

More tests on the test plane, known as FTV1, took place onMonday, according the plane-tracking website planefinder.net aswell as live broadcasts of air-traffic control communications onliveatc.net.

Social media reports from people following the runway testssaid the plane completed several taxi trials up to 120 knots.Bombardier could not immediately be reached to comment.